Motivations of a MasterMind
by Saint H
Summary: Slade reflects on all he has done, and the singular reason he has done it all. This is what motivates the dark mastermind. This is what breaths life into the villain. This is the true definition of Slade.


Diclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans. They are property of DC Comics and other associations. Also the term Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) is a quote from Rene Descartes. I do not own it.

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Cogito ergo sum…I think, therefore I am.

The true purpose of my life…

The reason for why I do all the things I do.

I think, therefore I am.

The masses do not think, they are automatons following blindly along the whims of society and the fools who run it. They do not think, they are no more than beasts following an alpha male, who may think or may be enthralled in their own fabric of political and moral lies used to guide the masses.

So, they are not. They are nothing save mindless golems with the small chance of becoming human thru true thought.

Sonic cannon's, magic, lasers, explosions, these are not true strength. They are again the following of the nonsensical ideas of the masses. True strength comes from being, so in lies true human potential. True potential that needs to be explored and mastered.

Which was my purpose, to give the gift of true thought to the blind masses.

After discovering actual thought I realized that this whole human society was but a plaything, an illogical veil thru which the masses dumbly looked to find reassurance. A faulty thing in itself.

So I took the human society and the human laws and I broke them. I cast off the surname of the pathetic society and simply kept simply who I am, Slade. From there my empire grew.

Looking past traditional means of thinking I created androids stronger, faster, more durable, and, perhaps most importantly, more cunning than any before. For while they could not think, they were unsubstantially loyal to me. They followed my every whim. They were my counter society, an extension of myself. I thought for them, like the masterminds of the free world think for the masses.

And the pathetic puppets of society could not catch me, could not stop me, could not even slow me down in my war to free the minds of the world.

But they managed to defeat me in one way, they managed to keep the masses dumb, they called what I did crimes. Called me a villain. Claimed my acts were unmoral.

How foolish had I been? They had force-fed the masses from their birth to adhere to their useless drivel called human laws and justice. I withdrew for a time, plotting a different way to spread the truth.

The truth that thought will set you free, make you truly alive. Such as Death is a part of Life so are Pain and Pleasure interchangeable; so is Good and Evil two sides of the same coin, a coin that those who truly are need not be restricted to. And in the breakaway from this dichotomic thought pattern of the masses lays true power.

After my initial defeat at the hands of human stupidity, I looked for others of my mental caliber. There were surprisingly, next to none. I did not expect to find many, but the dizzying lack of true thinkers was appalling. The only person to be on my level was the infamous Dark Knight. And even he still went along with the thrall of human justice.

But he had many apprentices, and that's when I saw it. I needed an apprentice. Someone capable of true thought. And as it so happened, a young apprentice of the Gotham Hero had left the nest, and was on his own with a few pathetic pawns of society.

So my second plan began.

And, inevitably, failed.

Because of his close association with his lower comrades, these Titans, pathetic pillars of societies stupidity, he was seduced away from my grasp. All my knowledge, all my power, just for him, and he refused.

Though, granted, it wasn't a complete failure, indeed he had to use his own true knowledge in order to find the hole in my plan. I had got him thinking, but now that he was away from my tutelage it was for nothing.

I withdrew again.

Then I noted something. Pain often lead to a greater understanding of true knowledge. I had led a very painful life, so had the Dark Knight. Pain was necessary to understand the dichotomy of life. So if I could take one of these pillars of the masses idolatry, so called superheroes, an impressionable young one, give them my knowledge and lead them into some pain then I could show them the light. I could make them truly alive. And hopefully they could become my equal, and all would be well.

I found such a girl to suit my purposes, but alas, once again these fools the Titans seduced her, this time with love.

Such a powerful force as love I did not plan to contend with, and it was the death of me, for a certain time.

Even the fool Trigon, for all his power and near omnipotence, still followed the simple idea of 'devour everything'. He wasn't a true thinker, he was just powerful in the realm of the thoughtless. And therefore he lost at the hands of my first fail apprentice, his own daughter, and myself.

Ah, his daughter, she has pain, she has power, she has a cold detachment from the masses and therefore is able to see the idiotic flaws in societies structure. But alas, she is too close to the Titans, so I need not even try.

Showing people the truth is oh, so difficult.

But I shall continue, I shall preserver, and I shall continue to think and live above the idiocracy of the prison that is human society.

I am Slade, I know the truth, and I will set the blind human race free.

I think, therefore I am.


End file.
